How We are Fed Part 9

By the middle of June our bog was in full blossom. The flowers are quite small and their color is a little like that of the flesh. I read an interesting thing about them the other day. It seems that the berries used to be called "craneberries," because people thought that the blossoms, just before they opened fully, "resembled the neck, head, and bill of a crane." By dropping the _e_, we got the present name.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 45.--A Cranberry Bog. Showing the Young Vines.]

During our harvest time, which lasted from the middle of September to the last of October, we were very busy. We did not commence to go to school until the berries were picked. You see, frost may occur and spoil the crop, so that everybody works as fast as possible until the harvest is over. Father had about twenty pickers some of the time, besides our own family.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 46.--Cranberry Pickers at Work. Notice how the Bog is divided into Rows by Means of Cords.]

When we were ready to begin picking, father took some twine and stretched it back and forth across the bog, fastening it to small stakes. This divided the field into rows. Each picker was given a row, and he was not allowed to change until it was finished.

At first it seemed great fun to get down on the ground and strip off the bright berries, but when one does this day after day it gets pretty tiresome. It must be easy to pick oranges, because you can stand up while you work.

Father paid the pickers twelve cents a pail. It takes about three pailfuls to make a bushel. I averaged about one dollar and a half each day. I bought a suit of clothes and all of my books for the year, and have considerable money left. Some of the pickers who were quite small did not earn very much. Do you recognize Jennie? She worked a part of every day.

Twice during the picking season there was a sharp frost, but we saved the crop.

The government sends out a Weather Map every day. Our teacher gets one, and there is one tacked up in the post office every morning. These maps tell what kind of weather to expect, and father watches them closely.

When he saw that frost was likely to occur, he and the men opened the gates which hold back the water, in order to flood the part of the bog where we had not picked. The vines were buried nearly two feet beneath the surface of the water. Father says the water cools so slowly that its temperature is much above that of the surface of the ground or the air near it, so the berries do not get frost-bitten. Soon after sunrise the water was drawn off, and the next day the bog was dry enough for the pickers to work.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 47.--A Young Worker. Notice how the Berries are picked.]

I wonder if the Weather Bureau is of any use to farmers in California. I know that the sailors watch for the flags which tell when storms are coming, that they may not go to sea if a violent storm is expected.

Father says very many lives and much property are saved every year in this way.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 48.--Winnowing and Barreling Cranberries.]

I have not told you what we do with the cranberries after they are picked. Of course we cannot help gathering some leaves and twigs with the berries, and these must be taken out. For this purpose the berries are put into a winnowing machine. I will send you a picture of one. As the man turns the crank, wooden fans within turn rapidly, blowing out the leaves, twigs, and dirt. The berries drop through a screen and run out of a spout into a barrel, as you see. We then put them into crates or barrels for sale. Father tells me that cranberries are shipped from our country to Europe, because those raised here are much better than the European berries.

There are great quant.i.ties of cranberries raised in this part of Ma.s.sachusetts. I have been reading lately that they are produced in New Jersey, on Long Island, in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Canada, and some other sections. From what I have read, I guess they are not raised in Southern California. Wouldn't it seem strange if you were to eat berries raised on our bog, three thousand miles away?

Now I want you to tell me about the orange groves of Southern California, for none of us have ever seen an orange growing.

I wish you all a very "Merry Christmas" and a "Happy New Year."

Your loving friend,

WILL.

THE COCOANUT ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC

Imagine yourself on a great ocean steamship, gliding over the blue water of the Pacific Ocean toward the Samoan Islands. Among the first things that you will see as you near the sh.o.r.es of these islands will be tall, slender, graceful trees, rising without a branch to a height of thirty to eighty feet. At the top is a sort of crown, composed of long, drooping leaves. These beautiful trees lean out over the water and toss their leaves in the strong and steady breeze from the ocean. They seem to nod a friendly greeting to you as you approach, and to wave a loving farewell to you as you sail away. These trees are the cocoanut palms.

They grow on all of the tropical islands of the Pacific Ocean, in the West Indies, and along the sh.o.r.es of most warm countries, but never far from the sea.

When the cocoanut falls into the water, it is rocked and tossed by the waves and drifted about by the currents, but it is safe within its sh.e.l.l, for the salt water cannot penetrate this. When it finally comes to rest upon some strange sh.o.r.e, it is ready to give to the world another cocoanut palm, if the climate is like that from which it sailed.

In this way nature has helped the trees to become widely distributed.

There are cocoanut plantations as well as wild groves of the trees. When a plantation is to be established, the planter selects the ripest nuts and dries them for several weeks. They are then planted, and by and by a little palm springs from the small end of the nut and the roots from the large end. When the young trees are from six months to two years old, they are transplanted in rows thirty or forty feet apart. They begin to bear nuts in about five years, but they do not yield a full crop for fifteen or twenty years. Do you think that a poor man could afford to go into the business of cocoanut raising?

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 49.--A Cocoanut Grove.]

As you see in the picture, cocoanuts grow in cl.u.s.ters. You notice also that they grow close to the stem instead of at the ends of the branches. They do not all ripen at once, but nuts may be picked at almost any time. A tree will produce from fifty to one hundred nuts each year. If you were to go into an apple, a peach, or a cherry orchard, you could easily pick the ripe fruit. Gathering cocoanuts is quite a different matter, however. Let us observe this shiny-skinned Samoan boy and see how he picks them. He fastens a short piece of rope in the form of a loop to each foot. Letting one of the loops catch on a rough place on the bark of the tree he places the hollow of his foot against it, clasps the trunk with his hands, and raises himself a little. Then the other loop is fastened a little higher up, and he raises himself again.

In this way he finally reaches the nuts. With a knife he cuts off the ripe ones, which fall to the ground and are then piled up. They are then placed in baskets which are hung from a pole and carried on the shoulders of two men or are loaded on to donkeys and taken to the shed.

The ripe cocoanut is a valuable article of food just as it is picked from the tree. It contains also a milk which is a nourishing drink. Most of the cocoanut sent to other countries, however, is in a form known as _copra_.

At the shed the hard sh.e.l.l, which covers the meat, is split open by means of an ax. The meat is removed with a knife and is then spread out on mats to dry. This dried cocoanut is copra.

The inhabitants of these cocoanut islands live in a much more simple style than we do, and the cocoanut tree supplies many of the things that they use daily.

Let us examine the home of a native Samoan. The frame and posts of the house are made of the slender trunks of the cocoanut palm, while the roof is covered with its leaves instead of with shingles. The cups, bowls, dippers, and many other household utensils are made of the sh.e.l.ls. If a whole sh.e.l.l is wanted, the "eyes" are pushed in, the milk is used, and ants are allowed to eat the meat. These make excellent water bottles. Baskets, curtains, and twine, are made from the fiber of the leaves, and the bark is used for fuel.

From the copra an oil is pressed which is used in the manufacture of soap. It makes a perfectly white soap that will float on the water. It is also used to furnish light, and the people rub it on their bodies to prevent sunburn. The sap of the tree is made into sugar, vinegar, and a liquor.

While in our country the cocoanut is important chiefly to bakers and confectioners, in these far-away islands it is the most useful of plants, and one of the chief articles of food. Would you not like to visit the cocoanut islands and learn more of their interesting people?

A BUNCH OF BANANAS

Every day, as you walk along the streets you see great bunches of bananas hanging in front of fruit and grocery stores. You find them at the corner fruit stand, and peddlers carry them from house to house.

Although bananas are so common now and so cheap that all can afford to eat them, this was not so when your grandparents were children. In those days the fruit was regarded as quite a luxury, for there were few people engaged in carrying it from its tropical home to the cities of our country. Now many small but swift ships, called "fruiters," carry on this business. They get their cargoes of fruit in the West Indies or Central America, and within a week after sailing they are unloading at New Orleans, Baltimore, New York, or Boston. If the number of bananas which reach our country each year were equally distributed, each person would receive twenty-five.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 50.--A Banana Tree.]

Let us get aboard that wonderful train upon which all may travel free of cost, which runs equally well upon land and water. We step off right in the center of a banana plantation on the island of Jamaica.

Yes, these are banana trees all about you. See how long and broad the leaves are and how gracefully they droop! Some of them are ten or fifteen feet long; almost as long as the trees are tall. The trees, you see, are simply stalks from which the leaves unroll. Here you can see some just starting out. They are rolls of bright green, pointing upward, each starting from the center of the stalk. No, the leaves were not torn in that way by the pickers. The wind sometimes whips them into ribbons, for they are very tender.

These stalks growing from the base of the main stem are called "suckers"

here; in Costa Rica they are called "bits." You remember that there are no seeds in bananas. It is these "suckers" that are planted when a farmer wants to start a plantation. They are set out when two or three feet high and within a year they bear fruit. What did I tell you about the length of time required for the cocoanut to bear?

It is but four years since the trees in this plantation were single "suckers," standing about fifteen feet apart. Now there are several stalks grouped about each parent plant, and the beautiful leaves, touching overhead, form shaded aisles of green.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 51.--A Banana Plantation.]

Of course a great number of "suckers" are not allowed to grow together.

Keeping these cut down is called "cleaning the plantation."

Now let us examine the fruit on this tree beside us. You see that the great cl.u.s.ter or bunch is made up of smaller bunches. These are called "hands," and each banana is spoken of as a "finger." Let us count the "hands" in this bunch. This is an unusually large one, for it contains thirteen. Nine "hands" make a _full bunch_. As you see, there are from ten to twenty "fingers" in a "hand." Buyers will seldom take bunches of less than six "hands."

Here come the fruit cutters to help get a cargo for the "fruiter" we saw at anchor.

Yes, the bananas are green, I know, and they are always green when gathered. They will ripen in the storehouses when they reach the United States.